Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, New York. Named for Alexander Hamilton, you know, the “not giving up my shot” guy, the college is a quintessential Northeastern small school. Hamilton offers an open curriculum and over 50 areas of study. Impressively, 72% of their classes have fewer than 19 students, and 28% have fewer than 9. Hamilton also meets their students' total demonstrated financial need, which is pretty awesome.
Last year, the college had an 11.8% acceptance rate… yeah, no cap, it’s competitive. But if you are nervous about being able to get in, we have some tips and tricks for you. Let’s break it down.
What is Hamilton looking for?
Hamilton uses a holistic review model, which is just a fancy way of saying they are looking at your whole package. However, some factors are more important for admission than others. They rank these factors as part of their Common Data set. (Honestly, we love a Common Data set. It’s a high-key useful document).
Pay attention to the columns listed as “very important” and “important.” These are the factors that you want to make sure to shine in.
Rigor, Rank, and GPA
It should be no secret that colleges care about your academic record. Hamilton looks at you academically in three ways. The first is the rigor of your transcript.
Hamilton doesn’t have any required credits to apply, but they have 16 that they recommend. You can do better than 16. But also make sure you have those 16 credits and try to do as many as you can at a high level. That means taking classes at an AP, Honors, IB, or even dual enrollment level. Depends on what your school offers. Taking courses at whatever the highest level provided by your school is will speak to academic rigor. Challenge yourself, and your transcript will show rigor.
That brings us to class rank. Not all high schools rank their students, but we still like to look at it. If yours doesn’t, don’t freak out. If you get good grades and push yourself, you’ll give top-of-the-class energy. However, if yours does, you really want to be in at least the top quarter when applying to Hamilton.
Most admitted students are in the top 10% of their class, which is a good thing to strive for, especially if you are in that 20% of students that come from schools that rank.
Ok, then there is GPA. GPA is the hardest category to talk about. If you just google “Average accepted Hamilton GPA,” you will probably get 3.87. But it’s not that simple. Hamilton doesn’t actually track admitted student GPAs, because it’s low-key a bad data point. Every school grades differently, and not all 3.8s are the same. If you are taking hard classes and your school grades hard, your 3.8 is much more valuable than someone with easy classes at a less rigorous school. TLDR: your GPA should be as good as it can be, but there is no magic “average” number.
Should I submit scores?
If you notice above, standardized test scores are only “considered,” and Hamiton is test-optional, meaning you don’t need to submit scores. But should you? Well, depends on the scores. About 55% of students submitted scores, so it’s certainly not necessary, but you should if your scores are in keeping or better than the average Hamilton applicant. Last year, the middle 50% of applicants who submitted scores had between 1430-1510 on the SAT or 32-35 on the ACT. If your scores are in that range or better, send them. If not, skip it.
Writing and Recommendations (and Personal Qualities)
Let’s look at the last of the important factors. The one that is hardest for students to grasp is “Characters/Personal Qualities.” There is no section called this on the common app, so where do you show it? Well, a lot of it will come through in your writing and recommendations.
Obvs, you can’t control what your teachers write about you in their recommendations, but we hope that you have teachers who love you. Ask the best ones. If they ask for a brag sheet, take time to answer their questions. Ask early and be nice. Outside of that, you are kind of at their mercy. Sorry, it’s the truth.
What you can control is your writing. Take time on your essays to make them shine. This includes but is not limited to your Common App essay. We have a ton of blogs about how to write a killer common app essay, but we recommend starting here. However, TLDR, if you want your essay to slay, you need to do a few things:
Tell a good story.
Show off some positive personal characteristics. It’s 650 words, so it won’t capture everything about you, but try to showcase a few excellent qualities.
Be creative and well-written.
It might seem like this advice is giving… basic, but it’s more complicated than it looks, especially if you are not a strong writer. Give yourself time to brainstorm, write, and edit. This is not the kind of essay you can write the night before. Hamilton even posts essays that worked if you are looking for inspo.
This is where we usually start talking about supplements. However, Hamilton doesn’t have a writing supplement. Before you are like, “Sick, easy,” we recommend sending an email to their admissions office. Maybe it’s a little try-hard, but that is not a bad thing when it comes to college admissions. We have a blog on how to write that email here.
Consider Considered Factors
Hamilton considers a ton of other factors that they consider. Yes, these are by their very nature less important, and some like “alumnae relation” you simply can’t control. But we still wanted to break down some of the ones you can control.
The easiest one is making sure you sign up for an interview and do some prep. Again, we have tons of blogs about this, but we recommend starting with this one.
You should also strive to take on leadership roles and show commitment to your extracurriculars. Having a great resume is going to help you here, especially if that resume includes volunteer or work experience. Think about applying for a summer job or internship. Similarly, it’s not a bad idea to volunteer if you actually like volunteering. We hate to see a one-off beach clean-up or an hour a month at a soup kitchen. It’s not impressive and feels like you are just capping. Like, if you are going to list volunteer work, make sure it’s substantial.
The final factor you can control is “level of interest.” To check off this box, you just need to show interest through an official channel. You can show interest by signing up for a tour, going to an info session, reaching out to the admissions office, or, if you are super serious, applying ED. Don’t just like their instas, do something that they can track.
Ok! This was a lot, but hopefully, it answered some questions. If you are still nervous about applying, we can help with that.
Contact us here.